He used his annual Oration to the university’s Congregation - the university’s legislative body - to insist that ‘learning with no apparent practical use’ sometimes ‘yields the greatest benefit’.

His comments fly in the face of a Government drive to encourage more students to take up vital STEM subjects needed for the economy such as science, technology, engineering and maths as well as work-based apprenticeships.

Oxford University (pictured) must reserve the right to investigate subjects of 'no practical use whatsoever', vice chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton has said

Professor Hamilton's comments came during his annual Oration to the university’s legislative body

Professor Hamilton said that Oxford was ‘almost defined by its ability to set problems with no apparent solution’.

He said: ‘There will be many occasions when we are challenged about the real-world benefits of our work.

‘When someone asks: ‘What is the earthly use of knowing that?’ We should be strong enough, and confident enough to reply: ‘You know, I’ve absolutely no idea what use it might be. But isn’t it fascinating?’’

‘A patent has been filed and the team are in the early stages of exploring the commercial applications.

‘None of this was ever intended – it’s purely a by-product of the drive to know.’

Meanwhile, in the 1920s, two members of Oxford’s English faculty, one from Magdalen, another from Pembroke, ‘would talk late into the night, exploring their mutual interest in Norse mythology’.

Professor Hamilton added: ‘From those beginnings, C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkein both wrote a series of books loved the world over which have inspired film franchises grossing more than $6.5billion at the box office.’

These academics ‘didn’t have an inkling’ that their ‘intellectual curiosity’ could spark such phenomena.

However, Professor Hamilton warned that it is ‘still all too rare’ to hear Higher Education described as ‘just about the most important investment a nation can make on behalf of its citizens’.

He said: ‘That’s why I have somewhat limited expectation, come the general election, that properly developed policies on higher education (as opposed to vain-glorious point-scoring on past crimes and misdemeanours) will take up much of the politicians’ time or attention.

‘That’s sad – because it is exactly the sort of issue on which a real effort to find a new, meaningful consensus between the parties would be of immense benefit – benefit, of course, to the students and to the universities of the future, but also … hugely beneficial to the public good.’

He also attacked the Government’s tightening of student visa regulations, which he believes is directly harming UK interests.

He said: ‘Wherever I travel in the world, particularly in China and India, one question persists.

‘Why has the UK adopted a visa system so hostile to student entry? I do my best to answer but, frankly, the question baffles me as well.

‘For the first time in decades, the number of international students at our universities has dropped, most markedly from India. Why are we doing this to them – and to ourselves?’

Nobel Prize winner, John O’Keefe, also warned yesterday (tues) that the British government’s policies on immigration and animal research were risking the country’s scientific standing.

The US-born neuroscientist won the prize for rat research into the brain’s inner ‘GPS system’.

He said immigration rules were ‘a very, very large obstacle’ to hiring the best scientists, and animal testing rules could prevent vital research.